Restless
Authors note: I don't own anything related to Tolkien. This fanfic takes place between Frodo getting the Ring and him leaving for Rivendell. I apologize for not putting up any thing else for a long while, and I'm sorry this is only a one shot… but they seem to be all I have time for! Sorry! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it! REVIEW!
Confined. He felt utterly confined. The comfortable walls of Bag End seemed shabby and too familiar and worn and he was tired of looking at it. Out into the garden he went and even though Sam had done a beautiful job with it, he found it blasé and he wished sorely for something different. He needed a walk, that was it! He scurried down his sidewalk, past the gate, and onto the road.
Bilbo's words started to ring in his ears. It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. If you step onto the Road and you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off too. Frodo wanted desperately to be swept off!
He looked at the path he was on and decided he should let himself be swept off of it. It was too familiar, too old, too worn for his taste. Without giving it a second thought he turned off the road and started hiking cross country. All afternoon and into the evening he walked through field and wood, heading further and further away from home. He moved as quickly and as stealthily as a hobbit could; partially in hopes of no one disturbing him and partially in hopes that he'd get to wherever he wanted to go faster. He didn't know where it was, but he would when he got there. That he was certain of.
As the sun sunk down into the Sundering Seas and twilight settled on Middle-earth, Frodo found himself about to be in good company. His path had crossed that of the Wood Elves. It was a smaller group of a dozen or so, and they all were in a merry mood. It was high summer and near Mid Summer's Eve. Accordingly, the elves had been celebrating the occasion with drink and dancing with scattered and wandering kin, and they were now heading home for the night. One saw him and pointed, and once the others realized what and who he was pointing at, they all cried out, "Hail Frodo! What brings you so far from home this eve?"
"I was just out on a walk," Frodo replied, at a loss for any other answer to give. The elves had given him a bit of a start. He had a few questions he wanted to ask, but he barely had a chance to think of them.
"I think then," said a she-elf with reddish hair, "that you have gotten lost for you are too far from home to try returning there this night!"
The other elves chuckled and then an elven man with blonde hair and green eyes said, "You should come stay with us tonight!"
"I couldn't impose-"
"But you wouldn't be! The more the merrier!" a third elf said.
"Very well," Frodo consented with a smile.
"Good! Good! My name is Amras Earfalas," said the dark haired, green eyed elf that had pointed at him first. "Please, come walk with us. Our home is not far away now."
Frodo joined their group and asked, "Amras, how did you all know my name?"
"We knew your Uncle Bilbo. He spoke of you often and asked us to keep a watch on you, and so we have," Amras replied.
"I see," Frodo answered. It was comforting to know he was being watched over, even though he thought it slightly silly, considering he was still well with in the bounds of the Shire.
His restless spirit was starting to feel satiated by traveling with the elves. They were, after all, quite different from hobbits and good deal more strange and mysterious, and yet not so. He had been with them before, once or twice, but not this particular group and not when they were all so giddy. He rather enjoyed them being so giddy. They started singing strange songs in elvish that he only half understood, and the parts he did told him enough that they were utter nonsense, at least to those who were not elves.
Amras noticed that Frodo was not singing with them and inquired as to why.
"I don't know any of them," Frodo confessed.
The reddish haired elf, Nerwen, exclaimed, "Then we shall teach you! We would have you share our fun!"
They started an elfling rhyme which was the sort of song where one person sings one phrase and then the other person repeats. Frodo felt like a little hobbit child again singing a song about the man in the moon.
The night wore on with more singing and drinking and merry making. Somewhere, long after the moon rose, Frodo fell asleep with elven music in his ears and shimmering starlight in his eyes.
The next morning he was woken by Nerwen as the sun arose and the elves gave him a simply delicious breakfast of elven bread and honey. As he ate he asked them for news of the world far from his home. At last he came to the question dearest to his heart.
"Have any of you heard news of my uncle Bilbo?"
"He is in Rivendell with Lord Elrond. I believe I heard he has made excellent progress with his book," Amras answered.
Frodo smiled and nodded. "Perhaps I shall go see him one of these days."
"Perhaps you shall. But I should do nothing with out the wizard if I were you, Frodo," said Amras. "The days are growing darker. Shadows in the East are stretching further and further West. It is not safe for hobbits to travel alone in this darkening world."
Frodo took his words to heart. "How long shall you all be near here?"
"Til late autumn. Why do you ask?"
"I have a feeling I may be coming this way again before long."
"Well, you are always welcome here with us!" Amras said.
After a little more talk, Frodo departed from their fair company and headed home. He reached Bag End just a little before afternoon tea, and was met by a concerned Sam Gamgee.
"Mr. Frodo, I was beginning to worry about you!" He cried when he saw his master walk up to Bag End's front door. "Where have you been all day?"
Frodo bade him come inside with him, and once he had started making his tea, he confessed to Sam his meeting with the elves. Sam said nothing, save a small joke about how he wished to go with him next time.
He would have to keep a closer eye on Frodo from now on – he wasn't about to let his master run off with out him!
After Sam left, Frodo pulled out an old map of Bilbo's and wondered what lied beyond the white margins. He wondered when Gandalf would return. He wondered how he'd say good bye to Sam, Merry, and Pippin. He looked about the small study and wondered how the library in Rivendell looked.
"I'll see it soon. I hope," He said to himself. The Tookish part of him was crying for an adventure! He was ready to be swept off.